S. Sudanese rebels boycott peace talks over “unfair” inclusivity

June 22, 2014 (ADDIS ABABA) – The armed opposition faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM in opposition) led by the former vice president, Riek Machar, said they have boycotted the peace talks in protest against unfair processes in the selection of other stakeholders to take part in the IGAD-mediated negotiations.

Head of the rebel delegation, Taban Deng Gai, attends the opening ceremony of South Sudan’s negotiation in Addis Ababa, January 4, 2014. (Photo Reuters/Tiksa Negeri)

A spokesperson for the rebel leader said the 4th round of peace talks which opened on Friday in the Ethiopian capital was “partial” and “premature” without the rebels participation due to the “reluctance by IGAD” to address their “genuine” concerns over the selection processes.

“We submitted our genuine request to the IGAD mediation team to review the selection processes of the civil society organizations and faith-based groups before an inclusive roundtable talks kicked off. However, mediators have not responded and instead went ahead with partial opening of the talks on Friday without our participation,” James Gatdet Dak, a spokesperson for the rebel leader, Riek Machar, told Sudan Tribune when contacted on Sunday.

“Our delegation has therefore boycotted this premature process in protest,” he said.

Dak further explained that the SPLM in opposition was however ready to participate in direct talks with the government’s delegation, pending fair representation and transparent processes in the selection of civil society organizations and faith-based groups who would then join the talks after satisfactory selections.

“We are however saying our delegation is ready for initial direct talks with the team from the government until the matter surrounding the participation of the other stakeholders is resolved,” he explained.

The ruling faction of the SPLM, and the SPLM-former detainees on 20 June initially contested the representation of civil society groups and decided to boycott the talks. While, the deputy spokesperson of the SPLM-in opposition Mabior Garang de Mabior, issued a statement saying they accepted to resume talks despite the similar reservations they expressed.

However Dak argued that the selection process was bias as civil society organizations and faith-based groups who fled the country and now live abroad were excluded from participation, adding that the “handpicked” groups are dominated by the pro-government societies from Juba.

“Civil society organizations abroad such as those who have fled to Kenya and Ethiopia are the victims. Their representation is important in order to incorporate their views on how to end the crisis,” he stressed.

The rebel leader’s spokesperson said it would be meaningless to play negative games in the process of inclusivity if the common goal to achieve was to gather and harmonize divergent views of the various stakeholders for a sustainable peace process in South Sudan.

Dak decried what he said was a rushed partial opening of the talks on Friday and Saturday in Addis Ababa during which only the government, former SPLM detainees and pro-government civil society organizations participated.

“IGAD mediators should be conscious about this negative trend which tends to jeopardize the peace process,” he cautioned, adding that the situation should be corrected in a fair and transparent manner.

He explained that the SPLM in opposition had been for inclusivity in the peace talks from day one when the negotiations were launched, but added that the alleged games being played around the selection processes are potentially detrimental to the process.

The rebel official further appealed to IGAD mediators to include representatives of the other civil society and faith-based groups who fled South Sudan and now operate from abroad due to insecurity and intimidations by the Juba regime.

IGAD officials on Friday met with the rebel top negotiator Taban Deng, to discuss the rejection of the SPLM-in opposition to participate in the negotiations.

(ST)

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22 June 2014 20:32, by Ito

The SPLM in opposition should be congratulated for taking such a bold and a nationalist decision against the crumbling regime in Juba. What can pro-government organization like South Sudan Law Society do to bring about peace in this country. Those who work there are corrupt and are very close to the government and I am surprise to see that they are part of the symposium. Ya Jamaa, do we really

need peace in this country? Organizations inside government controlled areas were called and given bribes in millions, offered to stay in expensive hotels for a reason that is only known to the authoritarian regime. Call the peace a quit game and war to continue to bring about a just democratic federal system in south sudan where all will be treated equal with respect and dignity.

SPLA/M in opposition lack they have no agenda ,they are hopeless army militians , which civil societies fled country?
if they are fled mean that they are rebels not civil societies. mentions those civil societies fled the country ? those who fled the country are rebels and some individuals not societies

Barbayo, we know you are the people taking public money to satisfy your selfish interest, but I advice for you to be silence as you have nothing positive to contribute to this nation. Options are infront of your crumbling government, either to accept proposal put forward or Juba will be swamp by democratic forces and the end will be there. Now choose.

Ito
If you think that the regime in Juba is crumbling; then why are the rebels including you making noise that you’re not represented enough? Second; if the regime is crumbling; then when are you going to in charge in Juba? The rebel couldn’t afford to control any part of the country and yet you’re telling us the regime is crumbling! How dumbed would you be?

Yes this is the right decision. Boycott that good for nothing process. Government took relatives to Addis in the name of civil society organizations just to get accommodated in big hotels. IGAD mediators are a bunch of confused people, or they intentionally confuse the process in order to prolong it and spend millions more. Shame on them!

@ Lango.
you are a dinka which means dog or dead human being.don’t you know what dinkas are doing?
killing people in hospitals or churches. why man? soon you are now on run to uganda. you are going to die with all your cattle and???????????????????????????????????????????????????

Itto, Tong Dut, their like
you are really very Stupid like your Dad & Mam, we are tired of your stupid comment of hatred among the people of South Sudan all the the time. mind you, if you don’t want to be the ambassador of peace in the nation please shut your ash-hole and quit commenting here.we only need peace not any rubbish you preach.

Please, Nuer, or any rebels supportere, do you think that Dinkas are care about peace in Republic of South Sudan?
Please Dinkas are ready to treat you in any mean whether militarily or any political defeat. If you jeopardize the peace process, then, Dinkas will kill you.

If i may remind this Idiot who doesn’t know anything about where we are living. We are not drinking beer outside and not thinking why we are here. We are here because of the Dinka Opression to the New nation. We are the real Ambassadors to that nation. We are the ones who Gunnered the international Votes for the Referendum while you were leaking your toothless mouth. U r 700 x stupider than Kiir.

barbayo
They were forced out by force not by their wills….you have to understand English before you comment on it….thus, the SPLA in opposition are doing the right thing, because all those so called civil societies from the government side are all Dinka and were the people that forced Nuer out from the country…this organisation ( IGAD) are just working to prolong the war not to ending it….

Jalaby,
You are wrong. What we need is a wise and visionary leadership to come up with better system of governance and overcome the problem. And what are you doing in the north to stop the war with Darfur, Nuba Mountains, Blue Nile, etc? Take care of your problem first before you commend on ours.

Mi diit,Be honest to yourself and answer this question: are you ready to accept being ruled by a Dinka guy?
There is no war in Darfour or rebellion but in fact there are gangsters and bandits who usually attack unattended and soft points and sabotage public facilities, rob people and terrorize them and then run away!

Jalaby,
The Nuer have allowed a Dinka guy to rule for 9 years now. So what are you talking about? We reject Kiir for his stupidity not because he is a Dinka. And now you called Darfur, Nuba and Blue Nile rebels bandits? This is because you don’t want to resolve the war which has killed hundreds of thousands already. You used to called SPLA bandits. This is typical of blind rulers.

Is Sudan a homogenous country? Is Sudan a peaceful country? Does it truly have a common, unifying identity!? It doesn’t have a common identity and this is precisely why the Beja, Fur, Nuba, Masalit, zaghawa Uduk, Jumjum, Ingessana and others have consistently taken up arms against a government hell-bent on imposing the Arab identity on the whole country.

I find it strange that you don’t seem to realise that the Ajaira and Falaita clans of the Misseriya have been fighting each other. There have also been clashes between the Ma’alia and the Hamar over cattle and tribal territories. The Dar El Naila Arab tribes have attacked the Ghulfan Nuba in Dilling and Habila over a grazing site. The Ma’alia and the Rizayqat have also been fighting each other..

One hundred [100] people have recently been killed in clashes between the Salamat and the Misseriya in Um Dukhun. Why didn’t your precious ’identity’ prevent that from happening. The border between the North & South was based on religion instead of ethnicity. This is why you have Blue Nile within your borders. The indigenous people of Blue Nile are Nilotic — cousins of the Shilluk, Dinka and Nuer

Sorry I meant Rommel’s questions!Look my friend, you’re trying desperately to connect Darfour small issue with the south big problem, there is no connection between them, Darfourians are 100% Sudanese and they’ve the same identity of the rest of Sudanese people, have you ever heard any Darfourian rebel asked for Self-Determination?

they did not and cannot because if they do then will immediately be rejected by Darfourians people, man Darfourians people created the history of Sudan by supporting ALl-Imam Al Mahdi and liberated Sudan from Turkish/Egyptian ruling!
The Darfourian war started in 2003 and Turabi was behind it after Bashir kicked him out of the government and it was all about unfair

development between their region and other Sudan regions (it was just an excuse) but was never like the south problem with north which went beyond that and talked about the differences in religion and believe and the relationship between the religion and state, differences in ethnicity, language, culture and in identity in general and then power and wealth sharing!

Darfour, Nuba and Funj have nothing to do with all that because they’re Sudanese!
Southerners always look at themselves as different body from north, different from Arab Muslims (Mondokoro) in the north and never belong to them and to Sudan and the request for separation was always there since 1955 and was the real motivation for any rebellion!

I can see you are so tired to provide Darfour issue as a big problem in Sudan and so tired to make some similarity between it and the south problem, man .. you’re wrong you’ve to compare apple with apple!
We don’t have war in Darfour but we do have gangsters and bandits who are supported by Sudan enemies (Juba government and Uganda) but we will soon neutralize them!!

You’re more delusional and ignorant than I thought. Sudan is certainly not an homogenous country. You have different tribes, with separate origins, speaking different languages, practicing different cultures, with different genetic markers, with different physical appearances. That is not ’homogenous’. Must I condescend to you again and point out just how incredibly illiterate you appear?

Is there anyone that actually thinks that Sudan is ’peaceful’!? Sudan is at the very opposite end of the spectrum of what is considered ’peaceful’. Are you doing that ghastly thing again, in which you gratuitously redefine words for your own ends? A ’peaceful’ country does not experience a situation in which close to 3 million people are internally displaced or have become refugees...

If you had a unifying culture that didn’t actively discriminate, didn’t forcefully exalt one identity and culture above the rest and didn’t invariably take the side of Arab tribes even when it is clear that they are the aggressors... Why then have the Beja, the non-Arab tribes in Darfur, Kordofan and Blue Nile spoken and taken a stand against Arab chauvinism!?

A country that has experienced a genocide of apocalyptic proportions cannot be insouciantly dismissed and framed as merely a ’small issue’. You lost more people in Darfur than we’ve lost in the South. I really don’t know just when this reality will sink in. You’re a bit behind the news my dear friend. You’re about four [4] years behind...

.. JEM made the call for self-determination in 2010. SLM, led by Abdel-Wahid Al-Nur, also called for self-determination. Even the Beja in the East raised the issue of self-determination. The people of the Nuba mountains have also called for self-determination. You are right about one thing — Darfur and South Sudan cannot be compared... no genocide has taken place in South Sudan.

You seem to be forgetting that when Gaafar Nimeiry arrived on the political scene, we rejoiced... because we thought that we had a President that regarded us as equals. We were ecstatic until Nimeiry tried to redraw the border between the North and the South, cancelled the agreed upon referendums on Abyei and Chali and attempted to transfer our forces in contravention of the agreement.

Rommel,I thought you’re just a liar but now it’s clear you’re a liar and ignorant too!
Yes Sudan was inhomogeneous when the south was united with it but after the rotten body cut itself by itself from our body we became homogeneous!
Leave Darfourians alone because nothing connect them with you!

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